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My son fom Christmas years ago.
Take note of the jersey.

 For years my wife and I have been laughing that we are bad parents. Not because of neglect or anything like that, we are bad parents because of sports. We live in the Philadelphia area. My wife is a huge Eagles Fan, I follow them, both my wife and I like the Flyers, and as a family, the Phils are our baseball team. If you noticed I said as a family we follow the Phillies. I didn’t say that about any of the other teams. This is how we are bad parents. Our son is a Kansas City Chiefs fan, which until this year was like saying he liked a high school football team, but the problem comes in with his hockey team. The young man, who claims to be our son, is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. This does cause some problems from time to time, and it has elicited some dirty looks from people when we go to Penguins/Flyers games. But they say you should let your kids have their own thoughts and be their own people. Sometimes it is hard. Luckily, he is not just a Penguins Fan, like me, he is also a Hockey Fan. By that I mean he enjoys the game. He doesn’t only watch the Penguins, but likes to watch other teams as well (although he usually is rooting against the Flyers, no matter who is playing them- Bad parenting). For the Hockey Fans like us, Walt Disney World offers a few Unknown Magics.

The first and easiest way to get your Hockey on is to go to the Canada Pavilion in Epcot. They usually sell hockey shirts and sweaters (jerseys to us Americans) on a cart at the base of the steps that lead up to the Pavilion. I have seen team Canada Sweaters and also different NHL teams that are from Canada available here. If you are lucky enough, to get a meal in Le Cellier, you may also be lucky enough to have a server that knows some hockey players. When we were down three years ago, we started talking to our server about where she was from in Canada and she told us. Our son the Sidney Crosby fan said hey that’s where Sid is from. She then asked if he was a Crosby Fan, he said yes and the discussion turned to the Penguins. She shared with us that not only did she know Sidney Crosby, but she

was very good friends with Marc Andre Fluery the Penguins goaltender. I still don’t know how we got my son out of the restaurant that night I thought he was going to follow her home. It still ranks up there as one of his favorite Magical Experiences in Disney.

Another place where you can find some hockey is on Main Street USA. One of the shops connected to the Main Street Emporium is called the Hall of Champions. This store sells Disney themed Sports attire. They have in the past sold hockey jerseys, which had Disney Characters as the leaders of the teams; the Grumpy Miners, Donald’s Destroyers, Pluto’s Devil Dogs and Mickey’s All Stars have all been sold in the past (I know this because I have all except the Devil Dogs). They also used to sell hockey pucks with the Character teams on them also.

In Downtown Disney you may be able to find Hockey apparel, at Team Mickey. Team Mickey is a huge Disney store that sells sports Merchandise. Of course many of the items have Disney characters on them, but they also sell official team jerseys and clothing and also Official ESPN items. Most of the time, the merchandise that is on the floor goes with the sport s that are being played, so Hockey things may not be available all year around, but even in the summer I have seen a few hockey jerseys available.

To watch hockey games when you are in Walt Disney World, you can either go to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Grill or the ESPN Club at Disney’s Boardwalk. Both are great places to watch any sports, but on the big screens, Hockey is just that much better. And if the Boardwalk is too crowded you can walk down to the Big River Brew Pub, it is smaller and the TVs aren’t as big, but it is still available if you need to see a game.

So, now you know, if you are a Hockey fan, you can find some things to keep your hockey passion alive when you are in Walt Disney World. You might be lucky enough to find someone to talk hockey with, or just be excited to pick up an authentic Canadian hockey sweater, because there are ways for Puckheads to have Magical Experiences in Disney.